Lionel Delevingne Photograph Collection, ca.1975-1995.

Born and raised in France, the photojournalist Lionel Delevingne studied education at l’Ecole Normale in Paris, but settled permanently in the United States in 1975. Based at first in Northampton, Mass., he became a prolific photographer of American social movements while working for the Valley Advocate and other publications, covering the early years of the Clamshell Alliance and the antinuclear movement in considerable depth. His work has been exhibited frequently and published widely in the mainstream and alternative press, including the New York Times, Le Figaro Magazine, Die Zeit, Newsweek, Washington Post Magazine, Mother Jones, and Vanity Fair.

The Delevingne collection includes remarkable visual documentation of the antinuclear movement of the 1970s and beyond, including some of the its most iconic images. Beginning with coverage of the Seabrook occupation, Delevingne covered the movement as it spread throughout the northeastern U.S. and internationally. The collection includes exhibition prints, prints for publication, and digitized images ranging in date from the mid-1970s through 1990s. Copyright in the images has been retained by Delevingne.

William Wallace Denslow Botanical Manuscripts Collection, 1864-1868.

A druggist by training, William Denslow became interested in botany as a means of combating tuberculosis through outdoor exercise. As his interests developed, Denslow amassed an herbarium that included between 11,000 and 15,000 specimens, including both American and European species.

Robert E. Dillon Papers, 1943-1946.

A working class native of Ware, Mass., Robert E. Dillon was a student at Massachusetts State College when he was drafted into the Army in 1943. After his induction at Fort Devens, Mass., and training for the Quartermaster Corps in Virginia and California, Dillon was assigned to duty as a mechanic and driver with the First Service Command. Stationed at Rest Camps number 5 and 6 in Khanspur, India (now Pakistan), Dillon’s company maintained the trucks and other vehicles used to carry supplies over the Himalayas to Chinese Nationalist forces. After he left the service in February 1946, having earned promotion to T/5, Dillon concluded his studies at UMass Amherst on the GI Bill and earned a doctorate in Marketing from Ohio State. He taught at the University of Cincinnati for many years until his death in 1985.

The Dillon Papers consist of 178 letters written by Dillon to his family during his service in World War II, along with several written to him and an assortment of documents and ephemera. Beginning with basic training, the letters provide an essentially comprehensive account of Dillon’s military experience and interesting insight into a relatively quiet, but sparsely documented theater of war.

Subjects

California--Description and travel

India--Description and travel

Pakistan--Description and travel

World War, 1939-1945

Contributors

Dillon, Robert E

Types of material

Du Bois Homesite Dedication Video, 1969.

1 item

As a child, W.E.B. Du Bois lived for several years on a five acre parcel of land on the Egremont plain near Great Barrington, Mass. Although barely five when his family moved into town, Du Bois never lost his feeling for this property that had been in his family for six generations, and when presented with the opportunity to reacquire the site in 1928, he accepted, intending to build a house there and settle.

Walter Wilson and Edmund Gordon purchased the Du Bois homesite in 1967 with the intention of erecting a memorial to Du Bois’ life and legacy. On October 18, 1969, the site was formally dedicated as the W. E. B. Du Bois Memorial Park, with civil-rights activist and future Georgia legislator Julian Bond giving the keynote address and Ossie Davis presiding as master of ceremonies. Nineteen years later, the Du Bois Memorial Foundation donated the property to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, designating the University of Massachusetts Amherst as custodian.

Enfield (Mass.) Collection, 1800-1939.

Situated at the confluence of the east and west branches of the Swift River in western Massachusetts, Enfield was the largest and southernmost of the four towns inundated in 1939 to create the Quabbin Reservoir. Incorporated as a town in 1816, Enfield was relatively prosperous in the nineteenth century on an economy based on agriculture and small-scale manufacturing, reaching a population of just over 1,000 by 1837. After thirty years of seeking a suitably large and reliable water supply for Boston, the state designated the Swift River Valley as the site for a new reservoir and with its population relocated, Enfield was officially disincorporated on April 28, 1938.

The records of the town of Enfield, Mass., document nearly the entire history of the largest of four towns inundated to create the Quabbin Reservoir. The core of the collection consists of records of town meetings and of the activities of the town Selectmen, 1804-1938, but there are substantial records for the Enfield Congregational Church. The School Committee, Overseers of the Poor, the town Library Association, and groups such as the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Bethel Masonic Lodge.

Joseph W. Estey Account Book, 1809-1827.

Joseph W. Estey was the owner of a farm in Greenwich, Massachusetts with a grist and sawmill. The account book (started in Springfield and Ludlow, Massachusetts with his business partner Abner Putnam) documents business dealings, hired male and female help, personal and farm expenses (hiring tanners and blacksmiths), and a deed.

Subjects

Agricultural laborers--Massachusetts--Greenwich

Domestics--Massachusetts--Greenwich

Farmers--Massachusetts--Greenwich

Greenwich (Mass.)--Economic condition--19th century

Howe, Edward

Howe, Gideon

Lincoln, Benjamin

Ludlow (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century

Marcy, Laban

Mills and mill-work--Massachusetts--Greenwich

Oaks, John

Parson Clapp Tavern

Putnam, A. W.

Putnam, Abner

Springfield (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century

Vaughan, Josiah

Ware Manufacturing Co. (Ware, Mass.)

Warner, John

Contributors

Estey, Joseph W.

Types of material

Drawing upon the unique materials under their care, the staff of the Department of Special Collections and University Archives organize two to three exhibits a year in their reading room and work regularly with their colleagues in the general library to prepare other exhibits for display on the Lower Level of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

Current Exhibit

Deep in the Hole: Experiences of Imprisonment

Sept. 15, 2014-Jan. 21, 2015

Location: SCUA and Learning Commons, Du Bois Library

Deep in the Hole focuses on experiences of imprisonment and the prison-industrial complex, using documents from prison rights and activism collections held in Special Collections & University Archives. The exhibit examines a wide range of experiences of imprisonment including political prisoners, conscientious objectors in WWII, the war on drugs and marijuana decriminalization, psychiatric confinement, and the role of controversial activism and publications. The materials range from historic to contemporary, from the papers of W.E.B. Du Bois to the trenchant comics of prisoners.

Upcoming Exhibits

Photographs of Alton Blackington

Jan. 25, 2015-May 31, 2015

Location: SCUA and Lower Level, Du Bois Library

The exhibit showcases “Blackie” Blackington’s New England photography from the 1920s to the 1940s. It covers terrain stretching from news of public officials and civic events to local personalities, but the heart of the exhibit is images of typically eccentric New England characters and human interest stories.

M.A.C. and the Women’s Land Army of America in World War I

June 5, 2015-Sept. 21, 2015

Location: SCUA and Learning Commons, Du Bois Library

This exhibit investigates Massachusetts Agricultural College’s participation in the Women’s Land Army of America, a women’s organization to work in agriculture replacing men called up to the military from 1917-1922.

Benjamin Smith Lyman in Japan

Sept. 25, 2015-Jan. 21, 2016

Location: Learning Commons, Du Bois Library

A native of Northampton, Massachusetts, Benjamin Smith Lyman was a prominent geologist and mining engineer. At the request of the Meiji government in Japan, Lyman helped introduce modern geological surveying and mining techniques during the 1870s and 1880s, and his papers from that period illuminate aspects of late nineteenth century Japan, New England, and Pennsylvania, as well as the fields of geology and mining exploration and engineering.

Kenneth R. Feinberg Papers, 1980-2011.

One of the most prominent and dedicated attorneys of our time, Kenneth R. Feinberg has assumed the important role of mediator in a number of complex legal disputes, often in the aftermath of public tragedies. Frequently these cases necessitate not only determining compensation to victims and survivors but also confronting the very question of the value of human life. A native of Brockton, Massachusetts, and a graduate of UMass Amherst (1967) and New York University School of Law (1970), Feinberg served as a clerk to Chief Judge Stanley H. Fuld, as a federal prosecutor, and as Chief of Staff for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. After acting as the mediator and special master of the high-profile Agent Orange settlement, he administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Virginia Tech’s Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, and the BP Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF). Feinberg has taught at several law schools; is the author of the books What is Life Worth? and Who Gets What and numerous articles; and is a devotee of opera and classical music. He practices law in Washington, D.C., and continues to be guided by a commitment to public service.

The Feinberg Papers contain correspondence, memos, drafts, reports, research files, and memorabilia. The collection is arriving in stages and is being processed. Some materials will be restricted.